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Candidate appears to have inadvertently alienated a good many of his fellow governors as RGA chairman.
AP Photo

As chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2006, Mitt Romney crisscrossed the country to elect GOP governors and broke the group’s fundraising record by hauling in $20 million.

Yet just two of the 16 governors he worked to elect then are supporting his presidential bid.

In fact, just three of the nation’s 22 Republican governors have endorsed him.

There are plenty of reasons that might explain the former Massachusetts governor’s surprisingly weak support among his former colleagues. But one of them stands out: He appears to have inadvertently alienated a good many of his fellow governors as RGA chairman.

“Right or wrong, the general impression was that he spent way too much time on himself and building his presidential organization,” said a top Republican strategist who has worked closely with the RGA in recent years. “I don’t think anyone ever questioned Romney’s commitment to the organization or the work he put in. They questioned his goals or his motives. Was it to elect Republican governors, or to tee up his presidential campaign?”

A campaign manager for an unsuccessful 2006 Republican gubernatorial campaign echoed the sentiments. “We definitely got the vibe from the staff that our state was never a national player when it came to the strategy that the RGA was putting together,” he said. “Everything they were telling me was about Michigan. They were dumping everything into Michigan.”

For Romney, his inability to win over the governors he worked closest with has proven costly. On the eve of Tuesday’s crucial primary in Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist announced his support for John McCain — despite the fact that Romney, as chairman of the RGA, had greenlighted a $1 million check to Crist’s campaign in 2006.

McCain won Florida by 36 percent to 31 percent over Romney. And the exit polls found that 42 percent of the voters said the popular governor’s endorsement was very important or somewhat important.

On Thursday, two more big-state governors who were on the 2006 ballot, Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Rick Perry of Texas, lined up behind McCain. Schwarzenegger’s decision came just days before California Republicans vote in this Tuesday’s primary. Perry switched to McCain after his first endorsed candidate, Rudy Giuliani, ended his campaign.

Altogether, six of the 16 Republican governors elected or reelected in 2006 are backing McCain. South Dakota’s Michael Rounds is supporting Mike Huckabee. Nebraska’s David Heineman and Rhode Island’s Donald Carcieri are behind Romney. But the rest of the class is sitting it out, having declined to endorse anyone.

One reason, said a Republican consultant familiar with the thinking behind some of the governors’ decisions, is that Romney rubbed some governors the wrong way during his tenure at the RGA.

“Everything seemed to have strings attached to it,” the consultant said. “If they were going to make a donation, they wanted a quid pro quo like an endorsement or a donor list or a volunteer program. There’s no interest like self-interest in politics. So when [governors] think their political lives are in a do-or-die situation, that’s not the time to offer help with strings attached.”

Phil Musser, a Romney supporter who served as his RGA executive director, says Romney’s dearth of gubernatorial support is less revealing than it appears. “With his peer governors, he is very popular and well-liked,” Musser said. “There wasn’t much grousing from anyone.”

Instead, Musser points to a variety of factors that might have led some governors to sit out the presidential primaries — the volatility of the GOP field, the reluctance of newly elected governors to take sides and deference to Huckabee, who was familiar to many of them as the former chairman of the nonpartisan National Governors Association.

The fact that very few new Republican governors were elected in 2006 due to the gale-force Democratic winds, Musser said, also accounts for the low number of Romney supporters.

“Part of it is the widespread, scattered nature of the field, part of it is that no one wants hurt feelings, and part of it is decisions made about self-interest,” said Musser, now a Republican consultant.

Still, with just three governors behind him — the little-known Heineman and Carcieri, and Missouri’s Matt Blunt, who recently announced he would not seek a second term — Romney’s base of support stands in stark contrast to the impressive roster assembled in 2000 by then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who had 24 governors backing him.

And Romney’s thin list of gubernatorial supporters pales when compared with some of the heavyweights aligned with McCain, including Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty, who was elected to a second term in 2006 and is frequently mentioned as a vice presidential prospect, and Indiana’s Mitch Daniels, who served a stint as President Bush’s budget director.

McCain also has the backing of Utah’s Jon Huntsman Jr., who represents a heavily Mormon state where Romney is exceptionally popular.

Beginning in 2005, McCain, who has spent his entire political career in Congress, made a concerted effort to line up gubernatorial support in anticipation of his 2008 run. He met with nearly every incumbent Republican governor, and campaigned and raised money for them and for other Republicans running for governor in 2006.

“We were always asking what we could do for them which, compared to what was going on at the RGA with Mitt Romney running for president, was a welcome relief,” said John Weaver, a former McCain strategist. “If they had a need, we were there to fill it. Campaigns, like football games, are often won by what happens in practice.”

Readers' Comments (787)

Hum...surely as bright as Romney evidently is...and with his many years and success in the corporate world, he would know the most important lesson when first enter'n the work force "don't burn them bridges".

The main problem with Romney is he frequently comes off as disengenuous. Governors are gunshy about endorsing him because they are unsure of what his position is going to be on any given day. Whether is is assuring voters in MA that he did not want to return to Reagan Bush before reinventing himself as a Reagan Republican, or his steadfast support of a woman's right to choose before reinventing himself as the pro-life candidate, or promising to be stronger on gay rights than Ted Kennedy before reinventing himself as the family values candidate, or promising the Michigan auto industry a 20 billion dollar bailout before reinventing himself as the fiscal conservative, or trying to sit on the fence on the timetable issue when the surge was at it's least popular, to reinventing himself as a pro-surge, anti timetable candidate after the surge proved successful. The examples can go on and on. Time and time again Mitt Romney has proven to the American people that the ever changing poltical wind can blow him in any direction. People in America favor a strong leader, which is why you have seen so many governors shun their colleague in favor of John McCain.

This is the same issue that Gov. Romeny is having with the electorate. While he would seem to have everything that one looks for in a President, I belive at the end of the day, he fails the "trust" factor. People know his qualifications but still can't find a way to trust him.

Exactly my thought. Where are the stories about how not all of McCain's Senate colleagues support him. Politico has another story linked just below this one that says Mitt Romney will have trouble attracting the youth vote. Next will be the story that Romney doesn't have the support of women, the military, etc etc. After Politico and the rest of the MSM build up McCain for a primary win, and knock out the Only Conservative left, look for them to start tearing McCain down with the same type of articles, and the avalanche of good press for either Obama or Clinton.

Rick Perry in Texas is comical. I don't know many people down here who can point to anything he has really done. Besides that he couldn't even get 40%of the vote in his reelection. He ran against one of the most incompetent groups of people in America. It was well known that if Kay Bailey had run he was out. It appeared she had made a decision to run, and then backed off later. The guy is a loser, and if Romney can make it to Texas your boy McCain will be in trouble. His immigration bill will not sit well here. Nor his ideas on global warming, or the fact that he opposed the Bush tax cuts. I am really starting to wonder about if McCain gets the nomination whether or not Texas goes blue. We are a very conservative state, but I don't see the voters showing up for McCain.

Mitt Romney ,dispite his Good Family and Finances, he still lacks that "Little Something". It's called "Southern Charm". If only he could buy some from Zig Ziglar,Jeff Foxworthy or maybe Mike Huckabee.Vote for Mike Huckabee.He CAN BEAT McCain and he won't have to spend a lot of money to do it.

Romney is slick. I do not feel comfortable with him. I cannot get excited about his candidacy! As much as I have problems with some of McCain's particular policies the kind of nonsense being espoused by Ms. Coulter, that the Queen is more Consevative than McCain is sheer and utter nonsense! While Obama was recently rated the most Liberal Senator, The Queen was ranked 16th.

In many ways McCain IS a Conservative. He was wrong about Immigration but he has received the wake-up call. He was wrong about Campaign Finance Reform but that seems a moot point now, as the Courts are wacking away at its influence. This newly adopted embrace of "climate change" politics is worrying. He wants to tie tax cuts to spending cuts and that is all right with me. He is right on defense, right on Iraq and right on the War on Terror. He wants to eliminate waste and fraud and that is a really good thing. He has core Conservative values but he goes Maverick on certain issues.

BUT... that is a long way from the Queen and letting that other more accomplished Slickster back into the WH.

McCain is the best hope to put a Republican in the WH and that is so absolutely preferable to the Queen and the Slickster that I cannot imagine a debate.

Further, this idea of we'll let the Dems win and then we can come along in 4 years and clean up the mess, is also a ludicrous argument to me. It is ALWAYS better to win and I do not want to gamble the future of this country in an effort to score political points. The stakes are simply too high.

So do so happily, do so reluctantly, do so grudgingly, do so kicking and screaming, but get behind McCain because he is going to be the nominee!!!

Romney is slick. I do not feel comfortable with him. I cannot get excited about his candidacy! As much as I have problems with some of McCain's particular policies the kind of nonsense being espoused by Ms. Coulter, that the Queen is more Consevative than McCain is sheer and utter nonsense! While Obama was recently rated the most Liberal Senator, The Queen was ranked 16th.

In many ways McCain IS a Conservative. He was wrong about Immigration but he has received the wake-up call. He was wrong about Campaign Finance Reform but that seems a moot point now, as the Courts are wacking away at its influence. This newly adopted embrace of "climate change" politics is worrying. He wants to tie tax cuts to spending cuts and that is all right with me. He is right on defense, right on Iraq and right on the War on Terror. He wants to eliminate waste and fraud and that is a really good thing. He has core Conservative values but he goes Maverick on certain issues.

BUT... that is a long way from the Queen and letting that other more accomplished Slickster back into the WH.

McCain is the best hope to put a Republican in the WH and that is so absolutely preferable to the Queen and the Slickster that I cannot imagine a debate.

Further, this idea of we'll let the Dems win and then we can come along in 4 years and clean up the mess, is also a ludicrous argument to me. It is ALWAYS better to win and I do not want to gamble the future of this country in an effort to score political points. The stakes are simply too high.

So do so happily, do so reluctantly, do so grudgingly, do so kicking and screaming, but get behind McCain because he is going to be the nominee!!!

I think they are having to do this because many conservatives are starting to rally around Romney. If you look at the latest Rasmussen polls in Tenn. Romney is only 3 points off McCain. In Missouri he is 4 points. The conservative vote has 3 more days to get behind Romney, and the polls are showing that is happening. Will it be enough is the question. With Huckabee being in the race I think it is going to be really hard, but there is a trend that is showing some movement towards Romney. He has pretty good support in California as well, and could come close to a split. He is going to pick up delegates in Georgia, Tenn., and others like them. He will win Utah, Mass., and probably Colorado. I am hoping for some late breaks to Romney over the next few days, and just maybe the Republican party has woken up.

Well, this article is yet more evidence that Romney is nothing like the "decent man" his supporters here make him out to be. His pattern of looking out for himself at every opportunity fits in with the pattern that we've seen elsewhere, of a man not driven by principle or sense of duty, but by an over-reaching sense of ambition, all just to add the ultimate job title to his resume. Mitt Romney is not running to ensure a better America. Mitt Romney is running only to advance the interests of Mitt Romney. The more voters get any exposure to him, the more they realize there is no real "there" there. Not one that is worthy of a true leader, at any rate. He is unworthy of the position he seeks.

Going to say the same thing about Jurassic McCain? Ask Cornyn, Hutchinson, Santorum or many of the other Republican senators abut this guy. They can't stand him and they think he is almost dangerous. You could easily do the same hit pice on McCain.

Douglas in Manama, McCain is NOT a conservative. You may wish it, but it doesn't make it true. In fact, if you are conservative then McCain despises you. He puts up with you as a useful idiot to get what he wants. And he has NO CHANCE in the general election. Zero. You may think he will draw in the moderate and independent votes, but they (1) won't make up for the loss of the conservative votes and, more importantly (2) there will be NO DONATIONS and NO VOLUNTEERS. McCain will be lucky to win 5 states. He'll get creamed.